Samsung Pixon

If you're a shutterbug, the Samsung Pixon is one phone to long for. A 3.2-inch, 240-by-400-pixel touch screen and an 8-megapixel camera with auto-focus put this model at the top of our list of 2009 phones to long for.




It also has a macro mode, and a dual power LED flash. Shake reduction helps you avoid fuzzy photos, while face and smile detection help you ensure you get good shots of people. There is another feature called Face Link which lets you tag people in a photo and then search for pictures by name. Oh, and as well as sorting photos by face tag you can sort them by time taken and colour.

The phone's GPS antenna caters for geo tagging also.

The device is designed keeping in mind people with photography in mind, the Pixon delivers dual-power LED flash, advanced shake reduction, face detection, Smile Shot technology and a photo browser with an accelerometer sensor (for tilt and flip).

There is also a microSD card slot on this edge which you can use to boost the 200MB of built-in storage. You get a 1GB microSD card with the phone This enables picture storage in it.




Image quality can be very good indeed. The macro mode proved to be the best element of all. The carnivorous plant was photographed very close up and the individual globs of sticky, insect catching gum are beautifully rendered.

The Pixon's other media capabilities are not to be overlooked. It can record video at a resolution of 720 by 480 pixels at 30 frames per second, or 120 frames per second at QVGA (1280 by 960) quality, and it can decode SRS Virtual 5.1 audio.

The 13.8mm-thick Samsung Pixon can also provide high-speed mobile Internet via its 7.2-mbps HSDPA connectivity.

In terms of general usability this is my favourite 8-megapixel handset to date. The Pixon brings these parameters to new heights.

Acer DX900

There are hell lot of smartphones flooding the cell phone market.With names like HTC, Samsung, HP and a variety of others fighting to shine like a diamond in a sea of pebbles, Acer has popped up with the Acer DX 900 and brought a feature to the market that has been wished for by a specific group of people for a long time- dual SIM.




Few phones have included dual SIM to date and the ones that boast this eye catching feature have failed to deliver an experience worthy of the promise. Users have only had the choice to run one SIM at a time or to use full dual SIM functionality in a phone.

Acer has now released a phone which promises real time dual SIM functionality with all of the extra smartphone trimmings we come to expect from a Windows Mobile device in 2009.

Alongside the battery sapping dual SIM set up we have a VGA screen for good measure with HSDPA, GPS and Wi-Fi included for good measure. Can a smartphone function for more than a day with all of these features without requiring multiple charging sessions?

The box contents that come along with this phone are pretty standard but the credit to Acer goes for including a good quality slip case and a screen protector which is worth applying; it covers the whole of the screen plus the section above and is thick enough to make it a valuable addition. The miniUSB charge and sync jack is ideal for re-using accessories from previous devices are situated at the bottom. The 2.5mm headphone jack is disappointing in a phone which is thick enough to easily accommodate the industry standard 3.5mm setup.
Adaptors are not that expensive.




The form factor is excellent and the proportions of the device are great. The VGA screen sits well within a unit which fits in the hand perfectly. It is light yet robust thanks to its outer coating that help in this regard.

The rubberised coating is practical and makes it even easier to hold.The front is dominated by a hard plastic covering which extends around each side of the screen and this creates a practical business like design.The buttons around the edges work well with volume and record keys on the left and the on/off and cameras keys on the right. The call start/end keys are good enough, but the main navigation key is a little strange and probably not one you will take to immediately.

It is better than it looks and works well once you are used to it so it is difficult to complain really.

The screen could be better in bright sunshine and I did struggle to view all that I need at times unless the brightness was up to full.The touch interface is excellent and feels natural from the first tap and this is good to see in any Windows Mobile device. It also suggests good things for the future as Microsoft pushes Windows Mobile 7 to market in an attempt to keep up with Apple.

A look at the memory screen was a slight concern with under 30MB ofprogram memory being available when first powered up. In the real world the Acer chugged along perfectly well and I witnessed nothing but good performance throughout my time with the device.




Video playback occurred with no stutters and even video files encoded at a high setting played as expected with fair enough sound quality through the supplied headphones. Music quality is very good, but only if you do not use the supplied headphones. As per usual every smartphone manufacturer appears to have a deal with headphone makers to not supply headphones that are worth keeping, but the practice is so common that it is barely worth a mention.

I spent some time testing Wi-Fi and GPS and again would rate both features positively. They both connected first time and I was particularly impressed with the Wi-Fi which held a connection quite a distance from the router which has not always been the case with previous mobiles of the league.

The camera is 3.0 MP auto-focus setup and is able to capture some good quality shots in decent lighting. The interface for the camera is quite easy to use and with practice this is a worthy addition. Similar thoughts surround the video camera which is useful for the ‘moment’, but you will not be using it for much else.

Dual SIM is the feature that stands the DX900 out from the rest and if it works we are looking at something very special. It works.

The ability to use two SIM cards at the same time is a huge bonus to people like me who have a SIM card provided by their employer and also a card for personal use. I tend to use my personal card for data and personal calls and my work card purely for calls and texts, and it is a pain having to carry 2 phones everywhere. It has become such a habit for me that it now feels normal to carry 2 phones and this goes a long way to negating the main benefit of a smartphone which is portability.

My main card achieved a full 3G lock which it cannot do in the iPhone and I was impressed with the overall signal quality coming from the Acer on both SIM cards after prolonged testing.

Call quality is decidedly average through the internal speaker, but the loudspeaker is excellent and produced little distortion at the highest volume setting. Few Windows Mobile phones have included good quality speakerphones so this is an added benefit for anyone who need the speaker facility more often than not.

There are many software touches included that enhance the Dual SIM functionality such as different ring tones for each incoming call and a delve beneath the surface will show up all of the features you could possibly need to customize the voice experience to your exact needs.

Overall, the Acer DX900 is a decent smartphone which is capable of producing a flexible and powerful user experience and this is backed up by the crisp VGA screen and better than average battery life.